Category Archives: Zines

It’s been about a year since we last posted on this blog. I’m sorry if you’ve tried to contact us or have been checking back but a lot of things happened just after our last post which has meant that the fetus and I have kind of disappeared from zine making and trading. I have though just finished a new zine which is pretty much about this disappearance (from my end at least)

Letters To A Sister, A5, 36 pages, bw & colour

So this is the zine. It has a colour cover and centrefold (not that kind!) and is pretty much a personal zine written after the death of my little sister last February. I’ve given some to Sticky for the 2012 Festival of the Photocopier (see below for details) and some will be going out to Take Care Distro but other than that I guess it’ll be a pretty small run. It has been a tiring year, and I feel as though the energy I had when I first started writing zines is pretty rapidly dissipating. If you want to trade though, please email tinypapermail@gmail.com for my address (the PO Box expired while I was overseas and I was too late to renew it). I’ll be checking the email address again, I promise.

Once again I am at work sans boss and listening to a combination of The Magnetic Fields and Electrelane (surprise, surprise), all of which indicates that it is time to update Tiny Paper Hearts. No new zines yet for me and the fetus, however based on the excellent times we had at Sticky’s 2010 Festival of the Photocopier we have decided to once again descend on Melbourne for the I am Typewriter: The Triumph of Continued Usefulness Festival.

The festival runs from the 3rd to the 13th of February, with the zine fair taking place in the Degraves Subway on Saturday the 12th. Hopefully some other interstate zinemakers will attempt the trip as I cannot recommend it highly enough, and there’s plenty of other events for those who don’t have zines to sell/trade. Plus Sticky has organised an official typewriter soundtrack, so there’s that.

Ok, the demands of administrative work are calling. Catch you in February.

I’ve been a little lax with my paper correspondence (amongst other things) but in the last couple of weeks we’ve received some interesting mail that I thought I would share.

First was blue floral gusset by Spurzine, which was written for the TINA 2010 Sticky challenge (I think).

I’ve got to admire such dedication to a deadline, since I on the other hand have absolutely none. And this is a continuation of the themes he raised in his earlier zine Travesty, but without repeating itself – it’s honest and awkward in its intimacy but that’s what I like about personal zines.

The second zine we received was Death of a Scenester Issue 2: Boys.

I have an admission to make – I don’t usually seek out collaborative zines, or zournals as Death of a Scenester prefers. But I was pleasantly surprised by this issue when it popped up in our PO Box, especially the opening article which constituted the most spirited defense of the Pet Shop Boys I have ever read (or possibly the only defense of the Pet Shop Boys I have ever read).

So that’s it. Both zines should be available from Sticky or Take Care, or email us if you’d like their contact details. Keep sending us zines (if you’d like) and I’ll keep writing this zine that has taken me the last 4 months to start, simply so I have something to trade.

The last time I went photocopying was in May, just before the MCA zine fair, and afterwards, even though I meant to do another run so I could post the new zines on Etsy and send them to distros, I felt so sandblasted that I could not handle the sight of the Officeworks photocopiers (snazzy as they now are) without experiencing a mild panic.

I’ve calmed down a little bit now and, as always is the case with me when it comes to times of stress, I’ve found myself turning back to the typewriter and to zine-making and -reading. Plus I’m going on a month long holiday tomorrow, and have put the Etsy store on hold for the duration, so if you’d like to get any of our more recent issues (including Sutures, Shy #2 and Ampersand after Ampersand #3) I’ve sent out a big box of zines to Sticky, and there should also be some available on mail order from Take Care as well.

And I’ve also sent out the first copies of my new zine COME BACK (home to me).

A6 (quarter size), 16 pages. There is no picture, because I haven’t taken one.

This is my first limited edition zine, mainly because the paper for the covers comes from a tiny old newsagent in Melbourne’s Chinatown (a town that I’m unlikely to visit again any time soon), and it’s a mix tape love letter to Electrelane. It’s also about repetition, perfect dreaming, Springsteen covers, and a little tiny bit about when Nietzche met Groundhog Day.

So I’m off to reunite with some of the people I call home, and will be back when the winter weather does not match my temperament so well. Until then, to quote Phil Connors quoting Coleridge, remember that “Winter, slumbering in the open air, wears on its smiling face a dream of spring”.

x Amanda

P.S. The fetus will still be checking both real and internet mailboxes so keep up the trading!

So a little update about some ziney things coming up that I wish I could attend (but regrettably can’t).

As we’ve posted before, the Canberra Zine fair is coming up on the 3rd July. If you’re in Canberra, hurrah! If not, what are you afraid of? Take Care zine distro will be making the pilgrimage from Sydney as well as a number of other Sydney/Wollongong zinemakers so why not, give it a whirl.

Secondly, and if you’re on the Australian Zines and Small Press Google Group you’ll already know about this, but there’s a zine reading slash show and tell at Marrickville’s Urchin Books on the 18th July. It’s being put together by Vanessa Berry and promises a delightful afternoon of tea and mutual zine sharing and appreciation away from the hectic and often stressful (for me at least) world of zine fairs and markets. So take your zines, if you have any, or just take yourself to Marrickville for the day, week, rest of your life. Also Urchin Books is looking to stock some more zines so check with them the why’s and how’s on the day.

Thirdly, and this is not strictly zine related, but a friend sent me a link to the screening of Strange Powers at the Chauvel on the 4th of August that I wish wish wish I could go to, but unfortunately I’ll be separated from Oxford Street by an ocean, several land masses and the supposedly linear nature of time. BUT, if you have ever read any of my zines (or possibly only the titles) you will have realised that I have a ridiculous love for The Magnetic Fields, one that is all encompassing and indefatigable. So if you are in town, and feel like watching a documentary on my favourite songwriter/musician, then go with my blessing.

And I guess that’s about it. Happy holidays kids (if you’re on them), soldier on if not.

The White Room Or Astronauts Are Not Excitable is an exhibition of Emma D’s (from Take Care Distro) exciting super secretive art project that she has been working on over the past 12 months. I’m so excited and I’ll tell you why. Why? Because she’s been building a space ship! Not many people can casually comment that they’ve been spending all their time building a space ship, well except Emma. Along with the space ship will be amazing artworks, prints and zines. Anyway, need I say anything else? Come along and be part of this most excellent opening night and be sure that you will have to fight me to be first to sit inside of the spaceship.

Quick update about Zine School that is happening this Thursday 15th April at Wollongong Youth Centre

Zine-making is about creativity and self expression. Come along to ZINE SCHOOL for lectures by zine-makers who illustrate, write or collate; learn about their creative process, and be inspired by their work. There will be the opportunity to sit and browse through zines at the zine library, or go to a zine tutorial to work on something of your own and workshop your ideas.